the effect of brine’s salinity on the content of emulsion created in the oil and brine interface

This paper investigates the effect of brine salinity on the oil-brine interactions in their interface. for this purpose, brine solutions with salinities ranges from 0 to 180,000 ppm were prepared using nacl and distilled water and then placed in a container in contact with a heavy oil sample. continues monitoring of the fluids showed that an emulsion phase was created at their interface, which enhanced with time. the emulsion content reached a plateau state after about one month in static condition. furthermore, the emulsion content in low salinity brines (from 0 to 20,000 ppm) was more than high salinity brines (20,000 to 180,000 ppm). finally, it was observed that there was an optimum amount of nacl concentration (5000ppm) in which the maximum amount of emulsion content was obtained. at low nacl concentrations (up to 5000 ppm) salting in effect was observed, while at higher concentrations, salting out effect was observed.